One unfortunate fact about the breathalyzer test for women is that it does not read a woman’s results the same way it will read a man’s; and here’s why: women have less of a certain stomach acid that metabolizes alcohol, and men have more of it. What does this mean? It means that if a man has been drinking alcohol, the stomach acid that he has will metabolize the alcohol he has in his body more quickly than a woman, even though both genders may have had the same amount of alcohol.
Therefore, since the man’s stomach can metabolize the alcohol faster, it will appear on a breathalyzer test that his blood alcohol concentration level is within the legal limits, whereas a woman’s breathalyzer test’s results would convey her blood alcohol levels as way over the legal limits. So basically if both sexes have had equal amounts of alcohol (this is taking their weights into account as well), and then given a breathalyzer test, a man would be found perfectly legal, and a woman perfectly guilty; all because of the way their stomachs metabolize alcohol. Obviously this is unfair. Another biological difference that hinders women during the breathalyzer test is birth control. Birth control changes many hormones and how things are digested in the female body–including alcohol.
A recent study has shown that women on birth control who were served alcohol, then given a breathalyzer test, were still found to be over the legal limit because of the way birth control affects their bodies. These reasons are just another viable source to prove how unreliable breathalyzer tests really are. Their cons definitely out-weigh the pros, and they have too much room for error. A test to determine whether or not someone should be given a driving under the influence charge should be way more reliable than what the current breathalyzer has proven itself to be.
A driving under the influence charge is a serious offense, and the deciding factor of a person’s guilt should not have to be how their stomach metabolizes alcohol, or whether they take birth control. This does not mean that breathalyzers should be completely eradicated in determining a person’s guilt, but especially when it comes to women, another form to reasonably believe that a woman is over the legal limits for her blood alcohol concentration should be developed; and the breathalyzer should not be solely relied upon for conviction as it presently is.
